Guardian 26,284 – Paul

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I found this pretty easy for a Paul, getting though most of it very quickly. Unusually I also found quite a few of the clues rather pedestrian, with some giveaway definitions, and generally a lack of the sort of invention we’ve come to expect. Still, there was toilet humour (literally) for those that like it, and the puzzle wasn’t totally devoid of interest – 5,21 was interesting, and I liked 8d and the slightly dodgy homophone in 3,22. So, despite my misgivings, thanks to Paul.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
9. ESPERANTO Tongue rarely used to preen, as rough (9)
(TO PREEN AS)* – Esperanto fans might dispute the “little used”, but I think it’s fair
10. NAIVE Simple backwater (5)
Reverse of EVIAN (mineral water)
11. EPILATE Remove hair from East Judea’s Roman procurator (7)
E + [Pontius] PILATE (rather too obviously)
12. BOOZE-UP Old god not entirely into dance, a wasted evening? (5-2)
O ZEU[S] in BOP. A booze-up might be an evening when you get drunk, or “wasted”
13. ARGO Mythical vessel written about in bibliography (4)
Hidden in reverse of bibliOGRAphy
14. PAGE-TURNER Contact artist for exciting work (4-6)
PAGE (to contact) + [J M W] TURNER
16. AIR HOLE Vent anger at first, one part full of hate, initially (3,4)
A[nger] + H[ate] in I ROLE
17. MALEFIC File corrupted in computer — that’s pernicious (7)
FILE* in MAC
19. SECOND WIND Back bend sees another burst of energy (6,4)
SECOND (to back) + WIND (bend)
24. MANILLA Article written in factory on a type of paper (7)
AN in MILL + A
25. OUTCROP Unfashionable haircut rocks, on the surface (7)
OUT (unfashionable) + CROP (haircut)
26. LINKS Talking cat, of course! (5)
Homophone of “lynx”, and a links is a golf course
27. MAIL-ORDER This setter is to return a pair of rulers shipped by post (4-5)
Reverse of I AM (this setter is) + LORD + ER (two “rulers”)
Down
1. GENERAL ASSEMBLY Enlarge, might one suggest, a legislature? (7,8)
A “reverse anagram” clue – “enlarge” is an ASSEMBLY of GENERAL
2. SPRINGER A jumping dog? (8)
Double/cryptic definition
3,22. GREAT OUSE Banker announcing depressing figures? (5,4)
Homophone of “grey twos”. As has been mentioned recently, “banker” is rather dubious as a definition of a river, but it seems to be becoming established.
4. UNDERAGE Dean has urge to stray, sex so illicit? (8)
(DEAN URGE)*
5,21. DOUBLE WHAMMY U-U-U-U like some meat? That’s a huge blow! (6,6)
Four Us = two double Us = double W, + HAMMY (like some meat)
6. INSOLUBLE Baffling noise, bullshit? (9)
Lift and separate: (NOISE BULL)* – I’d expect to see “shit” (adjective) used an anagram indicator by Cyclops in Private Eye, but I wonder if it might raise some eyebrows at the Guardian.
8. JEEPERS CREEPERS I say derisive utterances about record attributed to native American chap — that’s not on! (7,8)
EP in JEERS + CREE + PERS[on]
15. BOUNDLESS Tremendous description of a kangaroo with superglued hind legs? (9)
Double definition
17. MANDOLIN Old instrument with nothing left in time (8)
AND (with) O L in MIN[ute]
18. FLUORIDE Salt, or in water perhaps, alkaline base (8)
OR in FLUID + E, the “base” of alkalinE, as this is a down clue
20. CANINE 100 a square number for setter, perhaps? (6)
C (100) + A NINE (square number); the setter here is a dog
23,7. STOOL PIGEON Sample bird as prison informer (5,6)
STOOL (of which one might provide a “sample”) + PIGEON. Rather a giveaway definition, I thought, when combined with the enumeration

24 comments on “Guardian 26,284 – Paul”

  1. Done, dusted and enjoyed. Thanks! Liked that I got all the parsing right except completely failed to see the depressing figures in 3, 22 so hesitated to write the answer in till I had all the crossers.

    Goodnight

  2. Thanks Andrew. Half an hour for this, with 3,22 taking longer than most – I was toying with ‘bread line.’ I quite liked INSOLUBLE.

  3. I found this tougher than your average Paul, especially my last two (10a and 6d), where the ‘Guardian style’ of having the function word embedded in a longer word (rather than occurring discretely) still holds me up. That said, I liked the ‘shape’ of both those clues. I’m not sure, on the other hand, if sample for STOOL really works. Coincidentally, my trawl through YouTube film noir took me yesterday to a Victor Mature/Richard Widmark flick called ‘Kiss of Death’, which is all about a ‘stoolie’. Rather disappointing, in the end – ‘Detour’ the best of the bunch so far, in case anyone is interested.

    A small typo in your intro, Andrew – it should be 5,21 that was interesting.

  4. Thanks Paul and Andrew

    I found this a bit disappointing. For example, although NAIVE raised a smile, the answer could just as easily have been EVIAN (“Simple” back, meaning “water” – in Paul’s style, I expected this). 15d was too wordy and “clunky”. “Banker” for river should be banned. CANINE was weak (etc. etc.)

    I did like 1d and 5,21.

  5. I have enjoyed Paul’s recent puzzles, but not this one. Even the inventive 5/21 could not redeem it for me.

  6. I really enjoyed it. Thanks Paul and Andrew. Toyed with ‘bobbing’ for 25 ac. 3, 22 last in. Also tried for ages to make 4d begin with Inge, A favourite Dean of Araucaria’s.

  7. Agree that this was not a vintage Paul, but he does set very high standards and produce one for the Guardian almost every week, so I don’t think it’s fair to be too negative about it. I found some to enjoy, such as NAIVE, BOOZE UP and INSOLUBLE. All fairly straighforward except that I complicated things by writieng SECOND WAVE instead of SECOND WIND, so MANDOLIN was last in.

    Thanks to Paul for the crossword if not for the Kid Creole & the Coconuts earworm (STOOL PIGEON) and to Andrew

  9. Ulaca @ 3

    Never seen the film, but Mike Sarne illegally used a clip from it in Myra Breckinridge.

  10. Probably my quickest-ever Paul solve, one short sitting plus a bit of thought over 4d – I had ‘illicit’ in my brain as the definition for a while, putting sex = M or F etc into the subsidiary, until the penny dropped. Not really quite as searching as one expects from the master of misdirection.

    GREAT OUSE the best for me, brought an early chuckle and not very fulfilled hopes of more to come.

  11. I note the opinions that Paul not quite on top form here. I wondered about that myself, but hoped that it was in fact me who was on top form, having had my wits sharpened by Orlando’s fine offering yesterday!

  12. Thanks all
    Well I buzzed through the LHS and had to check the compiler again since it was so easy for a Paul
    However the RHS was entirely otherwise and insoluble almost was!
    I liked 12ac when I finally cracked it.

  13. Another enjoyable Paul puzzle IMHO. My experience was very similar to RCWhiting@12 in as much as the LHS went straight in but the RHS took much longer to crack. NAIVE was my LOI after INSOLUBLE, and it was interesting to note that they were the same two mentioned by Ulaca@3. We’re both Times solvers so it may be that the difference in house styles threw us a bit, although “insoluble” does seem to have held up others too. As far as the “evian/naive” clue is concerned either of the end checkers remove any ambiguity so I don’t have a problem with it. I was much more annoyed by the Guardian Quick and Indy Concise puzzles today where “Fastnet/Fisher” and “humble/homely” fitted their definitions but only one of each was “correct”.

  14. Andy B @13
    Fastnet and Fisher both fitted? You would have to write small for the first or big for the second!

  16. Conrad Cork @ 9 Never come across anyone who has seen Myra B (Gore Vidal disowned it of course). I wonder if ‘pegging’ will ever appear in a Guardian puzzle…

  17. muffin@14 & 15, not at all – mea culpa! My pitifully inadequate excuse is that I’d done the IC first and was in a bad mood because of it. I can only imagine that I had typed “Fasnet” in the GQ without realising it, and once I’d clicked on the “check all” icon it disappeared so I didn’t see the error. As to how I didn’t notice it much later in the day when I made my comment @13 that is far less explicable. I’ll get the hang of this letter count malarkey one of these days ……….. Funnily enough I realised what I’d done as I was lying in bed this morning and I was thinking “uh oh, I wonder what comments are waiting for me”, and when I came here your comment was far milder than any I’d been making to myself.

  18. muffin @14/15, Andy B @17 – apologies for remaining off topic, but that livened up a quiet day here for me, and I found yesterday’s quick crossword unusually tricky too, but I’ve never tried doing it online…

  20. I was going to add on the NAIVE/EVIAN thing that of course you are right that the crossers resolve the problem. However I think it is a weakness in a clue if it can’t be definitively solved in isolation.

  21. Finished this this morning as I am in a hotel at the moment. (Too drunk last night for logical thought!)

    Just for the record, I liked it and don’t see why the negative comments are merited?

    Thanks to Andrew and Paul

    P.S. Not looking forward to tonight’s offering. Let’s hope my misgivings are proved baseless 😉

  22. Ulaca @ 16 . I love the film (despite my good friend and record supplier Alan Ross calling it the worst thing he had ever seen). My DVD version is double sided, a director’s cut and the theatrical release. The former has commentary by Mike Sarne, and the latter by Raquel Welch. Some differences become apparent, to put it mildly.

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